CHAPTER 69: BURN

SOREN

I stayed on my knees long after I should have risen.

Watching her. Devouring her with my eyes.

The way she gathered herself, smoothing the fabric of her robe with hands that trembled just slightly, adjusting the fall of her hair, rebuilding that perfect mask of composure she wore like armor. But I saw right through it. Fuck, I saw it all, every crack in her pretense screaming how badly she wanted this.

The flush staining her cheeks, a deep crimson glow in the flickering torchlight, spreading down her neck like an invitation to bite. Her breaths came too quick, too shallow, her tits rising and falling under that robe, nipples hardening against the silk, I could almost taste them, stiff and begging for my tongue.

And her eyes.

Gods, her eyes.

They smoldered now, not with that fiery rage or sharp malice she wielded like a blade. This was fire, primal, scorching lust that mirrored the throb in my veins. It pulled at me, made my core tighten with need.

I felt it too, this heat that had nothing to do with her magic and everything to do with the space between us.

My clothes clung to my skin, damp with sweat. Sweat. When was the last time I’d broken a sweat? Not in battle. Not in negotiations with tyrants twice my age. Not even when I’d overthrown my own father and claimed a throne built on his corpse.

But here, now, kneeling before this woman who was supposed to be untouchable, I was burning.

And I loved it.

I knew how much she’d been affected. Even though she was trying so desperately to show otherwise, the facade was paper-thin. Fragile. I could see the cracks spreading with every breath she took, every time she refused to meet my eyes. She couldn’t hide the way her thighs clenched under that robe, or the subtle shift of her hips, like she ached for friction.

She’d felt it.

That pull between us. That electric, impossible thing that had sparked to life the second my lips pressed to her skin, hot and demanding.

And I wanted more.

Gods, I wanted so much more.

I wanted to see her unravel completely. Wanted to watch that perfect control shatter into a thousand glittering pieces. Wanted to be the reason she lost herself in nothing but pleasure, the reason she forgot her own name, forgot everything except the feeling of my hands, my mouth, my body against hers.

Feeling her stretch around me, until she clawed at my back.

Until I buried myself deep inside her, her walls clenching around me, milking every thrust as she trembled and begged.

I wanted to strip away every layer, every defense, every wall, every lie she told herself, until there was nothing left but raw, desperate need.

I needed to see her completely undone.

By me.

Only me.

That image alone slammed through me, my pulse thundering in my ears, heat surging to my groin like molten iron with an intensity that should have alarmed me. But it didn’t. If anything, it only sharpened the hunger gnawing at my ribs.

I replayed how quickly she’d stopped me. Her hand flying to my face, pressing against my mouth like she could physically stop the pull between us.

"That’s enough."

Her voice had been unsteady. Breath shallow and catching. She couldn’t handle it, the intensity, the intimacy, the sheer audacity of what I’d been doing.

And that knowledge? That she’d been just as affected, just as helpless against this thing between us?

It was intoxicating.

I nearly laughed thinking about it. The absurdity of the whole situation. I knew she’d requested I kiss her feet as a joke, a test, a dare, a sacred taboo meant to put me in my place. Rulers didn’t kneel for anyone. Not even for equals, and certainly not for someone who’d just abdicated her throne.

It was supposed to bring bad omens.

And insult to the creators of this world. Supposed to be a humiliation I’d never accept.

If anyone had asked, they’d have their tongue falling out of their mouth before they could even complete the statement.

But I didn’t give a single fuck about traditions.

Not when it came to Eris.

I didn’t care about omens or prophecies or whatever superstitious nonsense the priests whispered in their temples. I would have stayed on my knees forever

if she’d asked. Would have worshipped at her feet like she was a goddess carved from flame and starlight.

Because gods, the taste of her skin alone had been enough to drive me half-mad.

Soft. Smooth. Warm beneath my lips, with that faint hint of jasmine and smoke clinging to her like perfume. I’d wanted to devour her. Wanted to map every inch of her with my mouth until I knew her better than I knew myself. I’d craved to consume her, to trail my lips up her calves, part her thighs, and bury my face in her wet folds until she dripped down my chin.

And her scent, gods, her scent, hadn’t made things any easier.

It wrapped around me like silk, sweet and heady and utterly overwhelming. If she hadn’t stopped me, I would have kept going. Higher. Slowly. Deliberately. Licking the salt from her inner thighs.

Until I was tasting far more than just her skin.

Until there was nothing left between us but heat and breath and the sound of her losing control beneath my hands.

The thought sent another jolt of want through me, sharp enough to make my jaw clench.

But I forced myself to breathe. To wait.

Patience.

I needed patience.

I’d just gotten her to consider marriage, a feat that should have been impossible given the circumstances.

Pushing her too far, too fast now would only drive her away. And I couldn’t afford that. Not when I was so close to having what I wanted.

Not when I was so close to having her.

So I stayed where I was, watching her rebuild her walls brick by careful brick, knowing that next time, and there would be a next time I’d tear them down completely.

And she’d let me.

Everything I’d told her about Vetra, the Regent Empress, the sainted viper who raised me, was true.

Her roots ran through Nevareth’s court like frost through a dying field. Every noble owed her a debt; every general a favor. Her cruelty was legend, a quiet, elegant kind of rot.

If Eris Igniva had been Solmire’s terror by fire, then Vetra was mine by ice.

And yet I had never asked anyone for help. Never needed to.

Until her.

Because only Eris could rival Vetra’s strength without flinching. Only Eris would stare the serpent in the eye and smile like she was daring it to strike.

Of course, I could end Vetra myself.

I had a dozen plans, each more devastating than the last. All I needed was a word, a flicker of command, and her entire empire would freeze where it stood.

But that would be wasteful.

Vetra’s existence had always been useful, a shadow that kept the vultures from circling too close.

No, I didn’t need Eris to win.

But I wanted her beside me when I did.

And if I got to keep her in the process, keep that impossible woman tethered to me by law, by purpose, by proximity, then that was victory enough to make the gods jealous.

She hadn’t said yes, not aloud.

But I didn’t need words.

The look on her face said enough, the tilt of her head, the distant fire in her eyes, that faint smirk she wore when something intrigued her more than she cared to admit.

She was tempted.

And temptation, I’d learned, was the beginning of every surrender.

"What are you staring at?"

Her voice snapped me back to the present like the crack of a whip.

Only then did I realize how long I’d been watching her, how I’d let my gaze wander from her mouth to her throat, from her throat to the curve of her shoulder.

Unashamed, I met her eyes.

"Forgive me," I said. "Habit."

A lie, of course. I wasn’t sorry. Not even remotely. If anything, I was annoyed that she’d noticed too soon.

She rose then, her movements slow and deliberate, grace sharpened into dismissal.

"I’ll think about it," she said, already turning away.

Noncommittal. Detached.

But I saw the flicker at the corner of her lips, the tiniest curve of satisfaction that gave her away.

"I plan to depart from Solmire in a day," I called after her.

"I’d prefer if we departed together."

No reply. Just that ghost of a smile over her shoulder as she disappeared down the garden path, firelight fading behind her like the trail of a comet.

And I stood there, pulse still wild, a grin tugging at my mouth.

Because for the first time in a very long time, I wasn’t sure what would happen next,

and the uncertainty thrilled me.